“There was no incentive at all”: developers and publishers explained the reluctance to release their games in Stadia

Despite the fact that the official launch of Google Stadia took place in November last year, the cloud service still has only 28 games. Journalists Business Insider asked the developers and publishers why it happened.

As it turned out, a key factor in the lack of projects for the streaming service is weak financial motivation. According to a spokesman for an unnamed publisher, Google's offer was "so modest it wasn't even considered."

“We were contacted by the Stadia team. Usually this is followed by some kind of offer that gives you an incentive to go with them, but in this case it was as if there was no incentive at all, ”recalls the“ famous indie developer ”.

According to another representative of the independent game industry, in such deals, small studios are looking not only for resources to create their projects, but also for some kind of security. The latter, for example, is provided by Epic Games.

The second factor is coverage. The audience of Google Stadia is much smaller than that of Nintendo Switch or Steam, and the creators want as many people as possible to get acquainted with their games.

Thirdly, the studios are expressing fear that Google may abandon its plans for Stadia, as it has already done with other undertakings of the search giant (Google+, Daydream, Google Buzz).

"If anyone can make [Stadia] work, it's Google, but they've had a lot of failed experiments in the past that left major services unsupported," said an executive at an unnamed publisher.

Google commented on the concerns of the developers: a representative of the Stadia team sent a list of partners to Business Insider. Large companies like Bethesda, Ubisoft and 2K Games are more than enough there, but there are practically no indie teams.

“It's not just about money. Ultimately, I wonder why I do this. And [in the case of Stadia] there were no good reasons. With the exception of the prospect of being the first on the platform, there is nothing for us there, ”summed up an indie developer who did not want to release his project on Google Stadia.

Formerly Google promised to replenish the Stadia library with over 120 games throughout 2020, and the lack of information about upcoming releases explained the fact that each particular publisher has its own plans.

Source: 3dnews.ru